There's An App That Shows You Which Neighborhoods Are 'Sketchy,' And A News Crew Got Robbed While Using It

Sunday

Aug 10, 2014 at 3:25 PM

Alyson Shontell

Oh, the irony.

A Washington D.C. news crew says it was robbed in Petworth, Northwest D.C., while reporting on a controversial app that shows users where "sketchy" neighborhoods. The news crew said the app led them to the location of the shoot.

While the D.C. news crew didn't specifically name the app they were reporting on, it sounds a lot like SketchFactor, an app that was recently featured in Valleywag, Business Insider and other outlets as an app with a racist connotation. "Smiling Young White People Make An App for Avoiding Black Neighborhoods," Valleywag's Sam Biddle wrote.

"We were doing a story on an app that describes ‘sketchy’ neighborhoods," WUSA 9 crew member Mola Lenghi told his network on air Friday evening. “It led us to the Petworth neighborhood of Northwest, and I’m not going to call it a ‘sketchy’ neighborhood, but as folks were telling us that it was a good neighborhood, and that not much activity happens around there — as that was being told to us, our van was being robbed."

Lenghi showed the van's destroyed lock and says a number of electronics and bags were stolen from the vehicle. Some of the stolen items were tracked down four hours later to a dumpster when the station's intern used the "Find my iPhone" app. One crew member says he climbed into the dumpster battling rats and a raccoon to get the devices back.

Here's the clip, via The Raw Story:

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